Posted by: yangh190

Shoppers Spent As Much on H&M Lanvin As They Might Have on Real Lanvin

On Saturday, Lanvin’s H&M collection went on sale in 24 stores across the country. More than 300 shoppers had lined up at the H&M on Fifth Avenue in New York when Alber Elbaz pulled up in his town car to make sure there was a line. “I can’t believe it. I was sure there would be no one. I was a bit panicked,” he said, watching from the security of his car rather than going in where he didn’t want to cause a Kim Kardashian–esque riot. At least one shopper, Peter Park from Flushing, waited thirteen hours to get into the store. Naturally, standing out in the cold for this long could lead anyone to do crazy things.

Nicole Eng, a 27-year-old graphic designer, said, “It was this collection that really introduced me to Lanvin.” Eng ended up spending $1,700 on Lanvin (Hearts) H&M. She said it was ‘’the most I’ve ever spent in my life.’’

Even not wholly satisfied customers forked over a paycheck or more.

Caitlin, who declined to give her last name, said the quality was good, but the sizes “itsy bitsy.” She still managed to spend $1,800.

And amid the frenzy, controlled by a wristband admittance system to prevent overcrowding, there were the touching moments that could only conclude a Lifetime movie, like this one:

Most shoppers didn’t hold back. Wensen Ho, a 30-year-old who works in advertising, spent around $3,000 buying virtually every item from the women’s assortment for his wife. “She is pregnant and can’t be here, so I am doing a run,” he said.

Skin functions as a symbolic barrier separating the natural and the human (nature from humanity.) The interior of the body is natural and the exterior is subject to cultivation. For instance, the Kayapo which is an Amazon tribe, believe that cleaning the body means purifying it of natural elements. In addition, the hair which sprouts from the skin is also of symbolic importance: longer hair means they have more privileged. The hair inside of the body is natural but when it grows out of the body, this symbolizes the connection with the external society. Piercings, for example, the lip-plug signifies the differences between genders (only male gets their lips pierced.) Also the size of lip-plug indicates increasing authority or status. The fundamental opposition which structures the Kayapo society is articulated through practices which modify the tribe members’ skin.

This reading tells us that since it is visible to others, it is not just your body. It is a part of society. And each society has different standards with their own norm. This means a culture or individual can be analyzed by various yardsticks in each society. Now in the U.S, tattoo can be a creative way to express your individuality depends on the size or the type of it. However in Korea, most people have much more negative perspective towards having tattoo on the body than the people in the U.S. Having a tattoo has been a symbol of belonging to some criminal group for long time. It has given people bad aspects of having tattoo and still, the biased view strongly remained; the standard that each society can generate different perspectives towards same culture or appearance. May be I brought the topic too far but I also think this can be connected with the procedure how norm is created. If only one person in Kayapo tribe considered larger lip-plug seems to be powerful, it couldn’t be symbolical culture of Kayapo tribe. But because certain reason, most members of the tribe thought they need a tool to show each their own authority. During the process, skin became most important part to show status and etc like clothing is strongly considered in the Western culture: using skin as a medium to represent their social identity became a norm in Kayapo tribe.

Low Pay, High Profle by Andrew Ross is about how Barneys wokers successfully leaded the labor movement with alternative perspective by bringing the local subculture such as gay culture.

It also offered me a knowledge of background about how Barneys could succeed as a big department store from the largest men’s clothing store but which was not really luxurious.

The union knew how to get public attention. They opened the show at the workplace and let the models expose the insignia of UNITE. So they reflected their demands through the show and let the public know their concern.
To advertise their labor protest, they also used the gay culture which is still one of strong subculture in NYC. I believe this historical background became the good basis for building the strong relationship between Fahsion Industry, gay culture and NewYork city.(From this year, same-sex marriage became legal in New York)

This kind of creative and smart way of labor protest reminds me of many protests on 42nd street, which is noisy and even brings antipathy. When I was in High school, there was a big strike by MTA labor union. It is called 2005 New York City transit strike in Wikipedia. So all students and workers who didn’t have car had to take a cab to go to their work and school.(or they had to ask for a ride) If it was L.A, it wouldn’t be a big problem. However commuting in New York city is totally based on taking public transportation. So I still clearly remember how really UNCOMFORTABLE it was. They used the tool that they have so well! so all NYC resident could feel how huge their absence is. Their strike was not just a labor protest. It became big social issue and brought so much antipathy from the public.

I know labor protesting mostly comes because they have been unfairly treated by the vicious enterprises for long time and threatened their right to live. But the successful example by Barney’s labor union protest in 1930s, still makes me think about what form of protest would be ideal for everyone.

At the first time, I was actually going to American Eagle and my key word was “psychology.” However, while I was going there, I made a friend who wanted to visit Sephora. Edishree and I could share informations about eye concealers and eyeliners that we were interested in. There was another girl who got out of Sephora with us but I forgot her name. She bought her foundation there and we also talked about which brand is strong for foundation. Sephora, the space of consumption, offered me a chance to build a new “social relation” and also trying on cosmetics made me relieve stress.

I think the two sentences would help you to understand about my diverse perspectives towards many different cultures.

About two years ago, I went to Brooklyn to see hard rock performance. The guy who introduced me the place even told me that some kind of SLAM DANCE could exist but I didn’t care. Of course I won’t let someone to hit me in the other place such as subway or school.(I usually HATE physical contact). But I enjoyed it because it was a part of different culture; I was ready to accept and I gladly accepted it.

On this Monday, I read ‘GOTH UNDEAD SUBCULTURE Editied by Lauren M.E. goodlad and Michael Bibby at the writing center on 14th street with a helper. After finishing the reading, our reaction was pretty negative.

In terms of analyzing Goth in a social context was a good motive: a lot of goths have experienced social rejection. Showing how basic features of Goth music has been developed and created into new, various type of Goth music.

However except the things, explaining herself and the characteristic of Goth people is just like defending themselves. The explanation about Goth culture is paradox. Nothing is clearly defined and to defend it. The author also agree with some ironic aspect of Goth culture and finally calls it ‘Romantic.’

I understand why it should be paradox(as everyone knows, each individual in society can’t be defined or divided by certain standard.) However, since she started to state about her culture, it was better to be obvious.

This reading was “Look at Goth as it is, Goth is nice and don’t question it if you don’t understand”

Then ……why did you write this?

Unless she was writing a diary for herself, and since this reading was published, the writer was better to be careful because it makes some people feel very uncomfortable. And as you know, those people were trying to understand Goth culture.

The most horrible sentence was ” There may be a couple of homicidal psychopaths lurkingin our ranks, but there are far more, I believe, hiding in the most conventional guises. “

…Really?

Of course, there must be less homicidal or criminals in Goth group. I guess this world is made of 80-90% of conventional people(or more) and 10-20% of the others. What I want to say is, persuading the others in that way is wrong.

I still believe there will be better introduction to attract people to understand Goth culture and more meaning on it. And I am already ready to accept it.